


Who do we really know?

by SnowMercury



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Archivist!Sasha AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:47:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23525623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowMercury/pseuds/SnowMercury
Summary: Sasha James, the Archivist, still walks the same steps she did in another life.Things turn out both not as expected and as expected at the same time.
Kudos: 24





	Who do we really know?

There is a special pain in not being known. In being sidelined, singled out, easily replaced. Technically, you have friends. Technically, they care. But it only goes so far until the conversation ends, and you are no longer there. Friendship impermanence. 

Sasha had deeper friendships, before. Sure, her role as the Head Archivist was difficult, time-consuming, and even physically isolated from the others- a whole office to herself, rather than in the same room as Martin, Tim, and Jon. She still tried. She attempted to stay connected, talk to them, be there for them. When Jon came in one day when she had been working late, she patched up his shoulder, respected when he didn’t want to share what had happened. When Martin came in, holding a bag of squirming worms and sweaty and panicked, she offered the Archives to him, told him to stay as long as he needed- and if Jon had an issue with it, he could take it up with her. She knew he had been using that cot himself when he was working late, but really, he had his own place to go to, not here. 

And she was there for Tim. She had seen the squirming, greasy, shiny and slithery worms and the way Prentiss moved towards him. She Knew that Jon, with his injury, and Martin, with his fear, wouldn’t move fast enough. 

So she leapt out of the room, CO2 canister in hand, and tackled Tim out of the way. She kept running, her feet taking the familiar paths to Artifact Storage- what she planned to do there was hide, or find something to use against Prentiss, maybe.

We already know what found her there. We already know her fate. We don’t have to rehash it a second time. No, what is more important is the follow-up.

* * *

  
  


“Sasha.”

“Elias.”

The voices were cordial. A nod, from one avatar to another, although no longer by the same deity. And, although he was cordial, Elias was certainly not happy- he had a backup Archivist, of course, but he had hoped he wouldn’t have to use him. But, as always, Gertrude’s plans were worse off for him. At least he didn’t have to worry about getting the Web’s co-operation- although, he did have to think about if this meant the Web simply didn’t want to go through the trouble of Marking another archivist, and that this all had been planned somehow.

Likely, it had been. That didn’t worry him so much; he was still on schedule. The corruption had still marked Jon, after all. 

The loss of one Archivist stung, but it was nothing more than a light bruise. There was, however, the matter at hand. 

“Now, we both know that I Know who you really are. And I would greatly appreciate having the Archivist role back. Now, I can either demote you,  _ Sasha _ , down to an Archival Assistant, or you can deal with this situation on your own. I do wish you hadn’t chosen to take her, though, she’d been working perfectly fine as an Archivist.”

The Stranger sitting in front of him smiled, although it didn’t reach her eyes. “No worries, Elias. I don’t care to be tied more to the Eye than I have to be. It’ll be like I was never promoted to Archivist in the first place- although, don’t you think Tim might be a better choice for the role? His fear in particular, is…” She leaned forward slightly, steepling her hands in front of her like Elias had been doing already. “Quite delicious.”

“No, thank you, Jon will be a more than adequate replacement.” 

‘Sasha’ shrugged, leaning back in her chair, the movement less of a shrug and more of a roll of bone and muscle and flesh- here, she had no reason to be more human than necessary. “Alright. In return, don’t hint to the others that anything is out of the ordinary.”

Elias scoffed. “Of course not. I’m not a big fan of spoilers myself, I doubt they’d much like them.”

Sasha smiled. 


End file.
